Expert Witness Blog

Aviation expert witnesses may consult on aircraft design, aircraft operations, aviation maintenance, aviation safety, and more. This week a Delta Air Lines international flight made an emergency landing in Cold Bay, Alaska, after an engine warning message flashed in the cockpit. The flight left Tokyo and was bound for San Francisco.

Cold Bay is the furthermost settlement on the southern tip of the Alaska Peninsula and the beginning of the Aleutian Islands Archipelago. The Cold Bay Airport serves as an emergency runway for aircraft flying through the North Pacific. There were no injuries on the flight.

Transportation infrastructure expert witnesses may consult on highways, bridges, transportation engineering, and transportation funding. In Los Angeles this week, over 1,000 business, transportation, and elected leaders met at the 12th annual Mobility 21 Southern California Transportation Summit to address challenges in Southern California’s infrastructure. Along with traffic congestion problems, the Southern California Association of Governments foresees a $200B deficit for infrastructure through 2035.

Mobility 21 was formed in 2002 by the Metro and the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce as well as the Automobile Club of Southern California in order to speak as an advocate for transportation issues. They may be contacted at mobility21@me.com.

Medical toxicology expert witness Dr. Gary Dawson testified in the Provo, UT, murder trial of Martin MacNeill. MacNeill is accused of giving his wife five drugs including Valium which caused her death in 2007. Pharmacist Dawson described drugs found in Michele MacNeill’s body and how they are processed in the body. The prosecution contends that MacNeill killed his wife in order to continue an affair with Gypsy Willis while the defense says Mrs. MacNeill died due to a hear condition.

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In Brain Injury and Concussion, neurology expert witness Dr. Richard A. Rubenstein writes:

A small percentage of concussed patients do not recover as expected. Why? Signs of pathology on imaging studies may be the answer (complicated concussion). Especially troublesome are those claimants with no loss of consciousness, a Glasgow Coma Scale Score (GCS) of 15, and little or no post-traumatic amnesia. New research may offer an answer. A small subset of claimants with MRI or CT evidence of abnormality maybe a window into brain function and sequelae of a blow to the head. This cutting edge article offers an explanation for both memory and executive function impairment after a complicated mild traumatic brain injury.

In this observational study, the clinical relevance of abnormal findings on early brain imaging after mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI) is demonstrated. This study shows that abnormal imaging in the acute state determines prognosis in a subset of patients with prolonged symptoms after concussion (complicated concussion).

On her website FAQ document examination expert witness Emily J. Will, D-BFDE, answers the question:

Q. Can a document examiner work with photocopies of questioned documents?

A. This question must be answered on a case by case basis. If the copy is of good quality, and if there is enough information in the writing to allow an opinion, a copy can be sufficient. But there are some situations where the opinion rests on a subtle aspect of the writing that might only be visible on an original viewed under the microscope. In such situations, examination of the original is critical. Often the examiner’s opinion must be qualified due to limitations on the examination process due to submission of non-original documents.

In his blog Witness Perspective Photography, photography expert witness George Reis, principal at Imaging Forensics, writes:

What did the witness to a crime see from 40 feet away at 3:00 a.m.? What did the driver see when approaching the intersection at sunset? What could the injured party see in the movie theater before tripping on a stair?

Witness perspective photography involves returning to the scene under similar lighting conditions, observing the scene, and photographically recording it so that the trier of fact can see the lighting conditions, perspective, size of objects, etc. from the witness’ point of view. As the photographer, I document, in detail, what I can can see – how much detail there is, what objects are too dark to discern, which are too light, etc.Then I photograph the scene to represent what I could see. I make prints that represent what I was able to see at the scene, under the given lighting conditions, using the proper focal length, print size, and print viewing distance so that the viewer will see all objects at the same size, brightness, contrast, and color as I did when at the scene.

High speed rail transit expert witnesses may consult on railroad grade crossings, bullet trains, and railroad operating practices. Construction has begun on the high speed train connecting northern and southern California. $10B was approved by voters but recent projections put the price at $68B. In addition, the economic downturn has resulted in new plans that include the bullet trains sharing tracks and having to reduce speed. Even Quentin Kopp, past chairman of the California High-Speed Rail Authority, has dropped support for the project. The BART advocate and former California senator describes the project as “no longer a genuine high speed rail system.”